District Grand Lodge of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands
Freemasonry in Jamaica is governed through the District Grand Lodge of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, an overseas district of the United Grand Lodge of England. The District Grand Lodge is headquartered in Kingston at 45-47 Barbados Avenue, and its English Constitution lodges are regular in every respect, with members welcomed at lodges throughout the UGLE jurisdiction worldwide. A parallel District Grand Lodge under the Grand Lodge of Scotland also governs Scottish Constitution lodges in Jamaica.
Royal Lodge No. 207, chartered in Kingston in 1794, is among the earliest surviving English Constitution lodges in the Americas and one of the oldest continuously active lodges in the Western Hemisphere. It represents the continuity of Jamaican Freemasonry through the island’s transition from colony to independent nation in 1962 and across more than two centuries of civic life.
The District Grand Lodge oversees approximately 45 lodges across Jamaica, with smaller lodge communities in the Cayman Islands. Lodges meet in Kingston, Montego Bay, Spanish Town, and other major towns across the island. Visiting Masons should contact the District Grand Lodge in advance; current information is available at dgljamci.org.
The District Grand Lodge of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands maintains its headquarters in Kingston at 45-47 Barbados Avenue. Jamaica’s English Masonic tradition, which dates to 1742, reflects the island’s long history as a major British colonial possession and one of the most economically significant Caribbean islands during the plantation era. The fraternity’s survival through the plantation era (when the social structure of Jamaica was built on enslaved labor) and through emancipation, the transition to full Jamaican independence in 1962, and the subsequent decades, makes the Jamaican Masonic community one of the most historically continuous in the Americas.
A parallel Scottish Constitution District Grand Lodge also operates in Jamaica under the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Together the English and Scottish DGLs provide Jamaica with two UGLE-recognized Masonic traditions. Visiting Masons from any UGLE-recognized jurisdiction are welcomed at both English and Scottish Constitution lodges in Jamaica.
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